Jackpot! Parent Guide

Katie Kim (Awkwafina) is on a familiar journey: A young orphan and aspiring actress comes to Los Angeles to make it big, only to find that the city is dangerous, dirty, and frequently unpleasant. This becomes glaringly apparent when Katie finds out she’s won the Lottery.

Unfortunately for Katie, California’s lottery rules have undergone a radical change. Now, instead of just collecting your money, you have to survive until the end of the day. Anyone with a losing ticket is entitled, legally, to kill you and claim your prize up until the deadline. Until then, your appearance and whereabouts are broadcast to the city at large. This is the biggest jackpot ever, currently at $3.6 billion, and accordingly, everybody in Los Angeles now wants Katie dead. The sole exception is personal protection expert Noel (John Cena), who is willing to do everything he can to keep her safe to collect the winnings, in exchange for a reasonable 10% cut. But can Katie really trust somebody with so much to gain and so little to lose?

Jackpot! feels more like a stunt reel than a film, which isn’t necessarily a problem, but it’s something to be aware of before you park yourself on the couch with some popcorn. The fight scenes are a little long, and more than a little showy. It seems like everybody in L.A. has recently developed the ability to throw a grown adult bodily through the air, as well as a curious resistance to being cracked in the head with large and heavy objects. Again, this isn’t really a problem for the movie, but if you’re expecting a more straightforward approach to the story, you’re going to be disappointed. The plot is just here to hold the fight scenes together.

Actually, that’s not entirely true. The other foundational element of the film is Awkwafina cracking off as many quips as the screenwriters can reasonably fit into the film – or more, since the end credits are overlaid with blooper reels of lines that didn’t make the cut. I think the writers are pushing to see how much snarky dialogue can be stuffed into an action scene. We’re getting to the point where it feels less like a Twinkie and more like a pile of whipped cream with some crumbs in it.

The movie is going to be a hard sell for parents, who are likely to take one look at a swear count with over 100 f-bombs and keep right on looking. The constant physical violence doesn’t help, but it’s not particularly explicit. One of the rules of the lottery is you can’t use guns to kill the winner, so the film consists mostly of people getting hit with blunt objects or having knives thrown at them. There’s some sexual innuendo and some brief adult drinking and smoking, but it’s really the swearing and stabbing that are going to stand out to a family audience. For adults, you can probably do better, and you could undoubtedly do worse. Fans of Awkwafina or John Cena will probably have a ball regardless, since both get a lot of screentime to ham it up, but for everyone else Jackpot! is a bit of a mess.